Shoppers get physical on Valentine’s Day

With Valentine’s Day getting ever closer, you would think that, as with most last-minute shopping, people would turn to their trust keyboard and make purchases online. Turns out that may not be the case for V-Day as research from MasterCard reveals that between 11-14th February, for the past three years 90 per cent of shoppers around the world made purchases in-person, whereas only 6 per cent preferred to make their transactions online.

In this three-year period, overall consumer spending in the build-up to Valentine’s Day increased by an average of nearly a quarter (22 per cent), with many people moving away from gifts and grand gestures in the pursuit of experiences and the creation of memories.

Europeans made the most of buying online with over a fifth (21 per cent) of transactions taking place via the internet. According to Worldpay, “a minimum spend of £45 should be enough to keep relationships intact this weekend”.

Did you know?

A bit of Valentine’s Day payments trivia never hurt anyone. Did you know that in the US, food is the number one thing on V-Day with 38 per cent of spending made at restaurants, an increase of 66 per cent during this period. Spending on physical items such as flowers was down by a whopping 17 per cent and cards down by 14 per cent has decreased. In general, spending has increased by nearly 30 per cent with nearly two thirds of transactions being made in-person.

In Europe, whilst we like spending money on food over the romantic holiday (25 per cent), we prefer to express love with travel as spending on accommodations reaches 33 per cent, according to MasterCard’s ‘Valentine’s Day Index’.

Specifically in the UK, Preston is officially the most romantic city in terms of spend as the average Prestonian spends £53 on Valentine’s Day treats – 18 per cent above the UK national average. Milton Keynes (£49) and Aberdeen (£48) were Britain’s second and third most generous lovers, respectively, according to Worldpay’s data.

“Most business owners will be focusing on how to maximise profits over the intense and increasingly panicked 48 hour period up to and including Valentine’s Day. But the shrewdest shop owners will also be making sure to keep some stock back for Monday morning, when our data suggests there’s a premium to be made out of penitence,”said Dave Hobday, UK Managing Director, Worldpay.

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